France on Friday toasted the 200th anniversary of its revolution with spectacle and revelry.It was a day of vintage wines and tricolored bunting, full of Gallic panache, and it began with a Napoleonic display of military might on the Champs Elysees and ended with a surreal pageant of dance and music and light in the Place de la Concorde.Political leaders from four continents, several of them in Paris for a summit conference of the seven leading industrial countries, joined President Francois Mitterrand on the reviewing stand for the Bastille Day parade.

WHAT : It may look a lot like Santa (and his many clones) rambling through the bars of downtown this Saturday, but we understand your suspicion. For one thing, he won't be encouraging any rampant capitalism or promoting any department stores. And then, of course, there's all the drinking. All the Santas of "Santarchy" want is for you to dress up in your own Kris Kringle suit and join them for a night of unplanned revelry, including (but not limited to) bawdy caroling and gift-giving.

Twenty-one people were killed, many hit by stray bullets, and about 1,500 were injured as the Philippines put aside economic difficulties to welcome 1991 with firecrackers and gunfire, police said Tuesday. They said 11 fires broke out in Manila, one of them killing three workers trapped inside a garment factory. One man was electrocuted in another fire in crowded Quiapo district, they said. Thirteen people died of gunshot wounds in the midnight revelry, police said. The rest of the fatalities were stabbing victims.

LONG BEACH, Calif.--In 2007, the phone rang in the little Buddhist center in Long Beach that has been the focus of the Venerable Tenzin Kacho ASCIICHAR_92 s life since she was ordained a nun by the Dalai Lama. It was her brother, Robert Kiyosaki, a globe-trotting entrepreneur and author of a best-selling book on personal finance, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad." "We ASCIICHAR_92 re going to write a book together," he said, an inspirational blend of Eastern religion and business acumen about what is ultimately meaningful in life.

Mobs of several hundred Southern Illinois University students broke store windows and threw rocks, bricks and bottles early Sunday in a repeat of traditional pre-Halloween revelry. At least 27 people were arrested and four police officers injured in the three-hour fracas, police Chief Don Strom said. The windows of about eight businesses were broken, but there were no reports of looting. By Sunday night, streets were quiet as a steady rain fell. About 2,000 people stampeded through the streets in 1994, overturning two cars and breaking several windows on the portion of U.S. Highway 51 known as ''The Strip.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- The Rei Momo, or Carnival King, officially kicked off five days and nights of nonstop partying Friday with a special appeal for revelers to practice safe sex. "I wish all my subjects peace and health, that they celebrate safely and remember that the condom is the best Carnival costume," said Carnival King Alex Oliveira as he received the key to the city from Vice Mayor Otavio Leite. The Health Ministry plans to distribute about 25 million condoms this year, more than double the 11 million condoms distributed last year, at celebrations across this nation of 185 million people.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- On the corner of Burnett Avenue and Eastern Parkway Friday afternoon, two college-aged locals sat on a stoop and watched the traffic whiz through a green light. A friend was standing nearby, holding a sign that read: "Today's No-Pants Day!" And a fourth person stood about two feet away from him, his hands raised in the air, his pants resting around his ankles. This is the Kentucky Derby, the Run for the Roses, the Dropping of the Pants. For two quick minutes this evening, 20 horses will fly around the dirt track at Churchill Downs.

Sunlight glints off the Mississippi River, where the boats and piers are an impressive sign of the busy activity on and near the water.But the loading and unloading, the hauling and the traveling, are nothing compared with the busy life that teems just below the surface. Unfortunately, that's hidden from sight.Until you step inside the Aquarium of the Americas.There, life below the water springs majestically into view.In a city known far and wide for its adult-oriented, man-made fun - from sophisticated food to outstanding music to unparalleled revelry - there is an entity bringing nature to the forefront for children and adults alike: the Audubon Institute.

PARTY TIME! Right on cue, the rain stopped and the sun came out on Saturday as the Clown King officially opened Carnival in Rio. Hundreds of costumed dancers, samba bands, transvestites and common tourists took to the streets, still wet from 10 days of torrential rain, as the annual five-day revelry began. Officials barred traffic from a large sector of the city.

Fifty years after bikers invaded this quiet farm town, they've come roaring back. Tens of thousands of leather-clad motorcyclists jammed the streets Saturday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the boisterous revelry that inspired the film The Wild One. In 1947, motorcyclists rode into town, got drunk and turned the main street into a race track.

Gainesville police Lt. Corey Dahlem was trying to keep a dwindling crowd of University of Florida fans who were celebrating the Gators' basketball championship early Tuesday from walking into the path of street-sweeping machines. But a driver slammed into Dahlem about 2:30 a.m. as he helped clear the streets of revelers after the Gators win Monday night over Ohio State, according to authorities. Dahlem was rushed to Shands Hospital with life-threatening injuries, Gainesville police spokesman Keith Kameg said.

NEW ORLEANS -- The merriment of Mardi Gras is like the exaggerated greasepaint smile of a sad clown in a celebratory city still mired in miseries. For the sake of the Big Easy's psyche and pocketbook, the Carnival goes on this week, as big and brassy as before Hurricane Katrina devastated this place 18 months ago. There are as many parades and balls as ever as the extended celebration moves toward its climax next week on Fat Tuesday. Hotels are booked nearly solid, although boosters stress that some rooms are still available.

Those who weren't at the farewell performance last week of the Mount Dora-based band, The Boomerz, couldn't have been having enough fun. The crowd filled the former Ferran's department store -- now A Third Place restaurant -- with about 200 people who dined and danced till nearly midnight. The Boomerz -- Steve Williams on bass, Robert Cohen on drums and keyboard, Bob Scharff lead guitar and vocals, lead singer-backup drummer John Burkhart, his lovely trio of singing beauties, Rachel Williams, Jane Trimble (who plays a mean harmonica too)

Let other kids eat cotton candy, sit idly on the curb to watch the jugglers, clowns and marching bands go by -- 13-year-old John Bulat had a mission at the 26th annual Citrus Parade, and it involved the wrong end of a horse. "I'm the pooper-scooper," John said cheerfully with a gap-toothed smile framed by a freckled face and ball cap. Armed with a pail and shovel, John rolled his bicycle behind nine horses from the Orange County Sheriff's Mounted Posse at Saturday's downtown parade. Just why did this chore fall to John?

EUSTIS -- Hundreds of people lined the sidewalks of Bay Street on Saturday to watch the beauty queens, baton-twirling cheerleaders, local politicos and bright floats go by in the city's annual parade celebrating George Washington. In its 104th year, GeorgeFest is one of the oldest small-town celebrations in Florida, according to organizers. A children's carnival, a dog jog, a display of farm tractors and a cherry-pie-eating contest were among the festivities. "You have to be pretty ambitious to try that one," Al Miller said about the pie contest as he watched the parade from a chair.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- The Rei Momo, or Carnival King, officially kicked off five days and nights of nonstop partying Friday with a special appeal for revelers to practice safe sex. "I wish all my subjects peace and health, that they celebrate safely and remember that the condom is the best Carnival costume," said Carnival King Alex Oliveira as he received the key to the city from Vice Mayor Otavio Leite. The Health Ministry plans to distribute about 25 million condoms this year, more than double the 11 million condoms distributed last year, at celebrations across this nation of 185 million people.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- At least 22 people were killed and more than 70 injured in two fatal road accidents as Colombia wrapped up celebrations marking the local equivalent of St. Valentine's Day, authorities said Monday. Police said the two crashes, in neighboring provinces along the northern Caribbean coast, involved packed passenger buses that plowed into heavy overland cargo trucks. Both occurred Sunday night after a weekend of partying and revelry in honor of Saturday's so-called Day of Love and Friendship.

I was 50 feet deep in the cold Atlantic and "flying" -- carried gently along an invisible river of ocean known as the Gulf Stream. Hovering over a busy reef below, I watched a cityscape of sea life. Tiny neon fish darted in and out of dark cracks. Delicate orange sea fans and treelike green gorgonian corals swayed in the undulating current. And in the distance, a small green sea turtle, its shell the size of a hubcap, made a hurried escape. I was an awkward interloper, announced to this private party by a conspicuous trail of bubbles.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- On the corner of Burnett Avenue and Eastern Parkway Friday afternoon, two college-aged locals sat on a stoop and watched the traffic whiz through a green light. A friend was standing nearby, holding a sign that read: "Today's No-Pants Day!" And a fourth person stood about two feet away from him, his hands raised in the air, his pants resting around his ankles. This is the Kentucky Derby, the Run for the Roses, the Dropping of the Pants. For two quick minutes this evening, 20 horses will fly around the dirt track at Churchill Downs.